


The Dreamer, The Seeker, and The Winter

by UnKnown_Drive



Category: Dungeon Fighter Online (Video Game), Phantasy Star Online 2, Warframe
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comedy, Crack Treated Seriously, Crossover, Enemies to Friends, Fights, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:33:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25274728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnKnown_Drive/pseuds/UnKnown_Drive
Summary: Three vastly different universes collide in an unlikely meeting, with the prodigies of each engaging in conflict both with each other, and alongside each other. What reasons to cause this rare encounter are unknown and could only be chalked up to a will of an unseen force. Footsteps can be seen trodden in snow from a planet once known for hellish levels of heat...
Kudos: 1





	The Dreamer, The Seeker, and The Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Various levels of spoilers from each game's story sprinkled across this fic. Read with discretion.

_Orb Vallis, Venus, 16:24_

“Didn’t think Exploiter would show its head again after my Wisp took care of it.”

A dark, lone figure draped in deep blues and blacks, possessing sharp, imposing armor, stands quietly just outside a cave hiding from an endless sea of snow. Snowflakes eagerly invite themselves on the figure, reflecting the pulses of azure lightning occasionally streaking across the body.

“The Corpus are nothing if not --- _avarice incarnate_ – stubborn, Operator,” a glitched voice stated over its intercom.

“Lazy, too, I would imagine,” a voice said from the figure, as if emanating from the air rather than from the figure itself. “It probably isn’t much different from the previous model, so might as well use Volt this time to have a bit of fun.”

The emanating voice is commonly referred to as a Tenno, a gifted child of mysterious origin and powers that can control these figures, called Warframes, telepathically from massive distances. There are countless Tenno that control these warframes individually, but this one in particular possesses a unique gift to control multiple at once, an ability he chooses not to demonstrate here. As for Volt, this Tenno’s warframe of choice, it’s one focused on electromancy and speed, able to self-generate unlimited electricity. It can be considered that the Tenno and Volt are one in the same.

“You know Volt as well as the back of your hand, Operator, so I imagine you won’t encounter much difficulty --- _tttttaking out the trasshhhh_ \--- disposing of it.”

“I’ll make sure the compost is thorough this time, Ordis.”

Ordis is a being called a “Cephalon,” a digital glass beingwith their own unique personalities between each other. Ordis in particular is a Cephalon with a complicated past and a glitched form, but chooses to embrace it and serves his Tenno loyally.

Volt rests its arm across an ornate katana, with twin revolvers attached to its upper thighs and a lever-action rifle with lotus symbolism on its back. Everything on its body, weapons included, is draped in almost void-dark blues, indigos, and blacks, all spotted with gradient lights going from a bright, deep blue to a light blue. It cuts a threatening figure against the encompassing ivory of snow surrounding it, yet is slouched in a relaxed standing position, exuding confidence and experience.

Lightly gripping the upper sheath of its blade, Volt takes a few steps toward the cave entrance, only to be suddenly interrupted by Ordis.

“Operator, wait… I’m detecting some strange readings in the field behind you.”

“I did feel something just now…” the Tenno says, turning around. “Some kind of distortion… it’s persistent, but I can’t tell what it is.”

“Be careful, as it seems to be causing some kind of interfe---” Ordis attempts to say, followed by static and a dead signal.

“Ordis?… mmn.” The Tenno’s Volt steps further away from the cave and out into the field, with one hand firmly gripping its blade’s upper sheath and the other hovering over one of the revolvers. It looks across the snowy ocean surrounding it, only to be met with cold silence hanging in the air.

Suddenly, a flash of ringed light pierces through, causing the Tenno to guard its veiled eyes from the enhanced brightness caused by the snow’s reflection. A dark figure walks out of the light, as if teleported in, and the light behind it fades away as soon as it arrived. It takes a moment to look around, soaking in the environment, then set its eyes on the warframe just across from it, who regained its sight.

They both stare at each other, time seemingly standing still, lasting what feels like forever…

“ _Why do you look like me?!_ ” they both say in unison with each other, both leaning forward in shock.

Indeed, the figure who walked out of the light resembles the warframe significantly, sporting almost the exact same color scheme of deep, dark blues and blacks. The lights strewn across its body are also similar, though only possessing a singular color of light blue, leaning on cyan. However, it appears sharper and more robotic in its design, as if made completely out of mechanical parts. A full set of mechanical spikes resembling wings jut out from its back, and a long, seemingly glowing red-tinged white katana with flowing ribbons rests vertically on its back. If there’s one notable difference between the two, its that this robotic figure has visible, glowing eyes, whereas Volt has a full-covering helmet.

“(What is this…)” the Tenno thinks to itself. “(A Warframe? I’ve never heard of this one before, though, and it resembles Gauss in its mechanical looks…)”

The Tenno reaches for its twin revolvers, spinning them upward into its hands and swiftly aiming at the mysterious figure, flourished in a cross-armed, sideways position.

“Who-.. _what_ are you? A warframe?” the Tenno demands, the mysterious figure throwing its hands up in surprise.

“I-I should be asking you the same question!… minus that ‘warframe’ part,” the figure nervously replies, having a young male-leaning, robotic tone to its voice. “You look like a CAST, but you’re using twin pistols, a katana, and a rifle at the same time. What are you, a Braver? Gunner? Ranger? There’s no known successor classes that have all three of those!”

“C… CAST?” the Tenno asks, bewildered. “Braver, successor… what are you talking about?! You’re using terms that make no sense!”

“So are you! You expect me to know what a ‘warframe’ is?! There’s no ARKS class even named that! And… why does it feel like you’re communicating to me telepathically?!?”

Both at them stare at each other in silence for a moment, utterly confounded.

“… what joke is this?” the Tenno asks in frustration. “Did the Corpus make a robot that resembles me to throw me off? You have to be a Corpus machine, looking the way you do!”

“ _Xiao, what did you get me into…_ ” the figure says under his artificial breath, shaking his head. He then swiftly takes the flowing katana off his back and readies himself in a focused iaijutsu stance. “I am a member of ARKS, of the male CAST race. If you are also part of ARKS, show your ID immediately, else I will consider you an enemy.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about!” the Tenno yells in response, his Volt assuming a readied position in response to the CAST priming to fight.

A moment of stillness presents itself one last time, before it’s cut away by the sound of a revolver’s bullet, greeted immediately with a split-second slash from the CAST to cut it in two. The CAST hangs the blade in the air, it donning a brilliant red and emanating sparks of light all across it.

“Wha-..!” The Tenno is taken aback by the sheer speed at which the blade was unsheathed, as if there was no transition of movement the moment the bullet was fired. “They copied Volt’s abilities, too? Only Volt, Gauss, and Valkyr can swing blades that fast…”

“’Volt’?” the CAST asks, curious as he flips his blade and sheathes it back into the scabbard, assuming his original posture. “Is that what you’re supposed to be? Is that your name?”

“I don’t have a name,” the Tenno responds. “I’m a Tenno. If you know anything about our kind, you know you won’t leave here alive if you choose to antagonize us.”

“I’m not _choosing_ to do anything here, ‘Ten-oh.’ You’re the one pointing guns at me while throwing a glossary of words I don’t know in my face!”

“There isn’t a being in this solar system that doesn’t know what a Tenno is, ‘CAST.’ Feigning ignorance won’t save you.”

“Nothing I’ve been saying has been a feint, fool. Nor will anything--” like a flash of light, the CAST suddenly dashes behind the Volt, taking a swift, determined swing. The Volt pulses with streaks of light across its body and energized lightning, reacting to the swing just in time to dodge.

“--- I do.”

“Tch!” the Tenno scoffs. “So be it.”

Volt engages alternating rapid fire with its twin revolvers at the CAST, who moves completely undeterred, dodging and deflecting the bullets. When it runs out of ammo, the CAST goes in for another quick back strike, but Volt dodges the attack yet again while reloading in the same motion. No matter how quickly or how accurately the Volt aims, it can’t land a bead on its enemy.

“Too oppressive--!” the Tenno says to himself. Summoning a lightning bolt from its hand, it shocks the CAST, giving him a brief window of time. Volt reloads its revolvers, then unsheathes its own blade with fervor.

“You’re fast… but you can’t keep up with me.”

The CAST quickly regains itself and sees the Volt holding the blade in a strange direction across its arm, taking a defensive stance.

“Reverse grip?” the CAST asks, somewhat mockingly. “You can’t win a fight holding a katana like that. Any respectable swordsman would consider you insane.”

“Try me,” the Tenno responds, unflinching.

“Your funeral.”

The CAST flashes in close range of the Tenno, but Volt surges with a pulse of light yet again and attempts to punish the over-aggressive charge with a slash that the CAST barely evades, having to improvise a lean sideways. The CAST backs off for a moment to briefly study his opponent, then resumes his offense, Volt responding deftly with deflects, counters, and parries. Though their swings are lightning fast, their dodges are just as fast, and neither can land a scratch on one another. Eventually, their blades clash at a stalemate, the metal of each grinding hot against each other.

“Such an ineffective style, and yet I can’t get an opening on you!” the CAST begrudges.

“Self-taught,” the Tenno confidently bites back. “I don’t even have to look at you to keep up with your strikes.”

“Is that right?” the CAST asks, now curious. It retracts the blade from the Tenno’s, takes a few sharp steps back, then stands up assertively straight while slowly sheathing its sword. “Swinging blind with a sword grip that no one uses. If you’re that eager to kill yourself in such dramatic fashion, consider me a paying customer for your show.”

The Volt simply shakes its head, then sheathes its own blade, only to raise both it and the scabbard up in front of itself. Volt then lowers its head, the lights emanating from it going completely dark. The Tenno himself closes its eyes, and with that, a ground-shaking pulse of azure lightning streaks across the snowy ground from the warframe, burning and melting whatever’s in the way. It then just stands completely still, grip on the hilt and scabbard in front of itself, ready for whatever comes.

“Mmn~. Using your seemingly self-generated electricity to detect movement through ground currents. You don’t even need sound or smell to see me coming, do you?”

Volt just stands there, completely still, the Tenno not responding.

“Doesn’t help the fact that there’s snow all around us and I’m essentially a machine, making your lightning easier to detect me, so the odds are certainly in your favor.” The CAST assumes his stance, and watches the Volt for a moment.

“I’ve had worse, though.”

Striking the fastest the CAST has done before now, Volt deflects each and every strike promptly, as well as slashing at every millisecond of opportunity, as if the sight handicap didn’t exist. One slash in particular scuffed the cheek of the CAST, leaving a scar in its metal.

Impressed, yet undaunted, the CAST quietly switches up its strategy and takes to the air, dashing around like the wind while never touching the ground. This noticeably disorients the Tenno, who has broken its stillness and is motioning its head around, trying to hear where the CAST is going. Attempts to spark lightning into the air to spot him prove futile, as the CAST outruns it every time.

Relying solely on the whispers of the wind, Volt manages to deflect a number of the attacks, but is noticeably on its back heel trying to do so. Any attempts to strike back are met with air or a counterattack, which the Tenno struggles to react to. Eventually, he becomes too disoriented to keep up with the CAST’s seemingly endless airtime, so with the opening of his eyes and the re-lighting of Volt’s head eminence, he meets his opponent with a clash yet again. Not skipping a beat, the CAST notices the Volt buckling, using the opportunity to springboard off the pressure of the swords to flip behind Volt and slash its back. The slash lands, but not as deep as intended, as the Volt managed to pull away enough to reduce the cut’s damage.

“Agh!” the Tenno exclaims, Volt reeling in pain while holding its back. “Cut straight through my shields…” Volt holds the slash wound and struggles to retain its posture, as the frame quickly starts to bleed from the wound.

“Now we’re eve- huh?” the CAST attempts to taunt, but notices the blood streaking from the frame. “How… are you bleeding? I thought you were a CAST.”

“I told you, I don’t know what that is,” the Tenno responds frustratingly, seemingly with no inflection of pain in his voice. A result of a telepathic connection between the Tenno and warframe.

“You sound completely unaffected, yet you’re writhing in pain… what _are_ you?”

“Something that can annihilate armies in the blink of an eye,” the Tenno replies, with Volt raising its sword back up at the CAST, still struggling with the pain.

“All the more reason to make sure I take you down, then.”

The CAST puts one of its hands near its left eye, as if ready to reveal something. Meanwhile, Volt’s blade flashes white instead of the usual blue, almost beginning a transformation.

* * *

“Hmph. Accidentally end up in an unknown universe because Siran couldn’t operate the time gate right, and I’m met with two shadows fighting each other.”

That voice came from neither the CAST or the Tenno. Both look in the direction where it came from, only to see a teenage boy, standing with arms crossed in a haughty, displeased stance. His expression isn’t much better, looking annoyed and disappointed.

“I swear, he makes me fetch his wine all the time, and can’t even pay me back by sending me where I need to go… he’s not gonna hear the end of this when I get back,” the boy grumbles out loud to himself.

The boy is of pale complexion and has pointed ears resembling an elf. The facial build is young and somewhat effeminate, yet stern. His hair is a bright, snowy white, matching the environment, while also being quite full and spiky, front-loaded in length. His eyes are strangely heterochromatic, with the left eye’s iris being a solid red while the right is an electric, digital blue. Streaks of light from his right iris go across his sclera to his temple, then all the way to the back of his ear, patterned like lines on a computer board and pulsing streaks of bright blue light from the ear to the eye. As for the body, he’s draped in a black, lavish coat, formal slacks, loafers, and a double-scarved shawl. Streaks of a loose white and silver go across various areas of the clothing, a solid purple lies in the middle of his coat and in part of the cloth from his belt, and an ice-blue gem lies in the center of the shawl, surrounded by lines and hanging cloths of red.

“Who are you?” the CAST and Tenno say in unison with each other yet again, which causes a take between them. The Tenno draws one of its revolvers with its free hand, keeping his reversed blade in the direction of the CAST, and backs out slowly to a Mexican standoff-like stance to keep both of them at bay. The CAST simply keeps its blade drawn, quickly looking back and forth between the Tenno and the boy.

“I’d put that gun down if I were you,” the boy says directly at the Tenno with a patronizing tone, completely ignoring the CAST.

“Or else what?” the Tenno retorts. With a squint of the boy’s eyes, the Tenno’s revolver ices completely over within a matter of milliseconds, catching him off-guard.

“Or else that,” the boy responds, annoyed.

“Hmph,” the Tenno quietly scoffs to itself. It then supercharges the ice on the pistol with lightning, melting and burning off the ice with heated electricity, returning it to normal.

“Oh? An electromancer that wields guns and a sword? You’re an interesting one,” the boy remarks, intrigued.

“Who are you? A Tenno without its warframe? Considering the other… thing I’m dealing with here, I’m sure I’m way off the mark.”

The CAST looks at the Tenno, and although his head is expressionless by design, a sense of palpable irritation emanates from him from being called a “thing.”

“I’m sure you’re way off in your sanity, too, because I have no idea what a ‘Ten-oh’ or ‘warframe’ is. Far as I know, you’re speaking gibberish,” the boy insults, continuing his prideful tone.

The CAST intervenes: “From where I come from, you’d be considered a Newman with ears like that.”

The boy slowly turns its head towards the CAST with noticeable irritation, then lets out an exasperated sigh. “I’m a mage, full term being ‘magician,’ born in Pandemonium. I specialize in pure ice magic, and am blessed with the unique gift of an infinite magic source as my heart. That’s why I suggested that you both _put down your weapons_.”

Neither the CAST or Tenno budge, and the CAST responds back: “A magician, huh? We call those photon users something else from where I am, but I figured who you were considering what you have floating behind you.”

The boy raised an eyebrow at the word “photon.” _Light?_ , he thinks to himself. Not wanting to waste time on such details, though, he shelves the thought and replies proper.

“Ah yes, the staff behind me? Don’t worry, I don’t really use it much, as its an heirloom. It’s important to me. Don’t touch it.”

The boy has an ornate staff floating behind him, decorated in silver, black, and gold with a glowing purple glass sphere at the top. The designs of the metal emulate a flowing, winged design, and it generally seems to emit an immense power.

“What do you mean you ‘don’t use it’?” the CAST asks. “Forces--- egh, ‘mages,’ however you call yourself, need the weapon in order to channel their abilities.”

“I’m sorry, what?” the boy asks in a quietly threatening way, his expression changing.

“How do you expect to fight anything without using your sta-”

In an instant, the boy vanishes and reappears instantly in front of the CAST, a sharp, icy blue/white blade jutting from his hand aimed directly at the CAST’s metallic throat, with rows of ice spears floating above aimed at him. Both the CAST and Tenno reel back from the sudden teleportation, and it takes Volt a moment to re-orient and steady its aim.

“ **I’m sorry. What?** ” the boy says more slowly. Menacingly.

“H-he just… vanished and re-appeared…” the Tenno says out loud to himself, in disbelief.

The CAST keeps its blade ready, hands shaking slightly at first, but quickly stabilizes. “… infinite magic heart, you said?”

“That I did,” the boy replies. He lets his ice weapons fade into the air and lowers his arm. Despite the fact that the CAST and Tenno have been in a snowy wasteland this whole time, both of them started to feel colder for no apparent reason.

“You… you don’t even need a warframe,” the Tenno quietly remarks. The boy picked up on it and solemnly replied, “There’s nothing I _do_ need but myself and… people you’ll never meet in your life.”

The boy takes a moment to pause. “I hope what I just did sends the message home that _**you both need to put your weapons down**_.”

“You’re far too dangerous for me to do that,” the Tenno responds, grip tightening on the revolver.

“Seconded,” the CAST agrees.

The boy closes his eyes, suppressing massive inner frustration, then teleports far into the open field. “Okay. If you both are so eager to waste my time and view me as a threat, let me see what you’ve both got. Come.”

Not hesitating at all, Volt fires his revolver at the boy, only for it to be blocked by a thick sheet of ice appearing out of nowhere, only to fade away immediately after. The boy doesn’t flinch at all, keeping a blank expression on his face.

Volt empties the last 5 bullets of the chamber, all shots blocked. Nodding in respect to his strength, he puts away both the revolver and sword, then pulls out the lever-action rifle from his back. It seems to glisten in the snowy daylight, as if constantly polished and maintained.

“The bullets of this rifle are designed to pierce through any material, including some walls. Feel free to stand there and try to block these shots as I am aim for your head.”

Two burst shots fire from the rifle resolutely, Volt pulling the chambering lever almost instinctively after. There was palpable confidence in those shots.

The bullets were blocked by ice again, only digging mildly deeper into it. The boy yawns and casually looks around, disinterested.

“!…” The Tenno is at a loss for words. He reluctantly puts the rifle back, and looks over at the CAST, who seems equally bewildered.

“I say we put aside our fight for now for the bigger problem in front of us,” the Tenno suggests.

“Agreed,” the CAST plainly replies.

Both of them ready their blades for an offensive charge, then promptly careen towards the boy. Meanwhile, he’s still standing there, bored and scratching his nose.

The two rivals-now-allies coordinate maddeningly fast slashes and strikes at the boy, who remains with his arms disinterestedly crossed, ice sheets forming to block and deflect every strike thrown at him. Volt attempts to utilize his lightning to shock the boy, but ice forms to absorb and dissipate the electricity into the air. Taking a bit of pity at their attempts to challenge him, he stops forming the ice barriers and instead forms ice gauntlets & blades to fight them head-on. While he blocks, parries, and deflects all attacks swung at him with firm, fluid, trained motion, he never strikes back, instead opting to throw or push them off-balance.

While the two are mildly frustrated, they both don’t say a word and keep up the offense, eventually silently deciding between each other that a coordinated attack is needed. Using Volt’s lightning to keep the mage boy’s hands busy dissipating them away, they both lunge from opposing side from the back, as an attempt to both pierce through his heart. The lunge closes the gap, and-

The boy turns on a dime, viciously punches the ground, and a massive, spiked ice structure erupts from the ground, trapping the two in tangled ice the height of a skyscraper and the breadth of a mountain formation. Ice so monumental that anyone in Orb Vallis could see it from the farthest distance.

With eyes closed, the boy raises his hand, snaps his fingers, and the monumental structure fades into the air into snowfall. The Tenno and CAST fall to the ground, freed of ice, yet still immobilized from the shock of what just happened.

The boy simply walks over the both of them, and looks down at them with an expression that could put the fear of God into the thickest of skins. The two are speechless, and simply respond to the look with a terrified nod.

* * *

“That was entertaining, but I beliiieeeve the show is over, children.” With a resounding, ground-shaking _***thud***_ , a massive mechanical spider creature lands on the open snowfield behind the three.

It was the Exploiter Orb, the entire reason the Tenno came here in the first place.

Volt and the CAST quickly jolt to their feet. The boy simply turns his head around slowly, looking at the creature with a detached, mildly annoyed expression.

“And who. Are you?” the boy asks, intentionally spacing out the words.

“The Exploiter Orb,” the Tenno promptly answers, “an enemy of mine in this world and the result of a greedy faction’s endless resources.” The boy passively listens, mildly irked in a “didn’t ask you” sense. “I destroyed her once, but she was rebuilt to wreak havoc on this land once again.”

“I’ve fought several enemies about as big as that,” the CAST interjects, voice still a bit shaky from the fight with the boy. “Compared to whatever this kid is, this is business as usual.”

“Appreciate the compliment,” the boy retorts dismissively. “But I believe I’ve wasted enough of my time.”

He casually walks toward the mechanical behemoth. “As I’ve just demonstrated to these two, I possess power beyond your comprehension and can kill you with little effort. If you don’t mind, take whatever ‘plan’ you had for us and fuck off, if you value your fake life.”

“Such an insolent child! As a mother, I will show you what well-behaved, loyal children look like, so that you may follow a proper example!”

Something in the boy snapped, but quietly. The Orb’s mentioning of a mother and parenting hit a particular nerve.

Several smaller spiders gathered around the Orb Mother, all possessing coolant canisters on their heads. Following that, the Orb surged with an energy shield, which caused the Tenno to flinch and, almost reflexively, draw one of his revolvers to shoot at her. The shot vanished, with no effect at all.

“That’s Profit-Taker’s shield system!”

“Profit- what now?” the CAST asks, almost not wanting to at this point.

“It’s similar to what you see in front of you, but much more powerful and employs a shield system that can only be taken down by certain elements. Damn it, my weapons aren’t modded for this kind of fight…”

“Uh-huh,” the CAST says with little care. “Anyway, these names… ‘Exploiter,’ ‘Profit-Taker’… who’s coming up with these?”

“You remember when I mentioned the Corpus? They’re practically a capitalist death cult that stretches across the entire solar system, and make it a point to exploit everyone off every credit they can get their hands on. That’s who’s coming up with these.”

“And that’s what you deal with in your world?”

“No. I also deal with a bunch of cloned, deranged warmongers that want to rule everything with an iron fist, an infestation born from the same thing that made this frame infecting everything unchecked, a society from the past taking over and controlling anyone that enters its domain to help kill me, and an unfathomably powerful artificial race that seeks to destroy everything we know to claim the solar system for themselves.”

The CAST pauses for a long moment.

“You deal with a lot in your world, don’t you?”

“ **Yes.** ”

“Can you two save the bonding session for later and address the _big_ nuisance in front of us right now?” the boy pleads in annoyance.

“There’s nothing much that can be done. All of my weapons are modded to make enemies bleed out and instill a virus into their bodies, and this shield system can demand any number of damage types be used.”

The CAST looks at him, stunned. “… we really need to have a talk about the way you dispatch your enemies.”

“Hey, listen, I fight with people who weaponize their literal blood and make deals with demons from hell to rip their enemies asunder,” the boy interjects. “You do what you gotta do to save the damn day.”

The CAST has nothing to say in response.

“IF YOU ARE QUITE DONE, MY CHILDREN NEED SOMETHING TO ENTERTAIN THEMSELVES,” interrupts the Exploiter Orb. “What that is, is watching their mother enact sweet revenge on the ones that murdered her in cold blood by ERASING THEM ALL.”

“You don’t know what parenting really means… do you?” threateningly asks the boy, a hint of bloodlust in his voice.

“I suggest we all take different roles,” says the Tenno, cutting the tension. “The CAST can keep all the little spiders at bay, for they drop canisters that we’ll need later-”

“It’s Revan, by the way,” corrects the CAST.

“Zhen,” says the boy, quickly adding on.

“Right. Revan, you take care of the little spiders. I’ll try to swap its shield system to be weak to slashing or viral damage. If it lands on cold, Zhen can take care of it.”

“Honestly, I could destroy it right now, but this thing gets on my nerves. I’ll let you all have your fun so that it suffers a slow demise,” responds Zhen.

“Whatever suits you,” the Tenno replies dismissively. “I’ll get started, then.”

All of a sudden, a young boy shifts into reality from the Volt, covered head-to-toe in unique, dark garments to hide his identity, matching the color of the Volt.

“… too many questions, too little answers, just do your role…” Revan says to himself, heading out into the fray.

“Interesting,” Zhen passively remarks, going back to continue watching the Orb with crossed arms.

With the Volt standing completely still behind him, the Tenno readies a weapon attached to his right arm, aiming directly at Exploiter. In the time it took to ready the shot, Revan was already slicing any coolant spiders nearby.

“You take joy in killing children so efficiently, don’t you?” asked the Exploiter to Revan, attempting to stomp him and missing completely due to his speed.

“I’m afraid I’m well past the point of mind games, my dear,” rebutted Revan.

The Tenno fired a deep azure beam at Exploiter, which caused its shields to flash for a moment. He then phased out of view and the Volt resumed movement again, taking another shot at Exploiter. Once again, no effect.

“Damn!” the Tenno scoffed, “They accounted for the flaw of showing the shields’ weakness…”

“Excuse me? Showing what now?” Zhen asked, showing genuine confusion for the first time.

“The Corpus are greedy, not bright,” the Tenno responded, almost like it’s common knowledge. Zhen simply chuckled to himself and shook his head.

“I’ll give them credit for actually accounting for that flaw, but this is only delaying the inevitable. Zhen, could you strike her, see if she’s weak to cold?”

Zhen gave a sideways look, then spawned an ice spear out of thin air and hurled it at Exploiter, with no movement required at all on his part. There was once again no effect, but it seems Exploiter felt the impact of the hit that time.

Still wanting to keep her attention on Revan, the turret tucked on the bottom of the body acts autonomously and opens fires on the other two. Volt pulses with energy and outruns the plasma bullets with ease, and Zhen merely teleports out of the way whenever it gets close, his stance remaining the same it has been. Volt’s sprinting eventually takes him close to Revan, which he seized as an opportunity to ask him a question.

“Revan! Does your blade have an element infused into it?” he shouts amongst the chaos.

“Light!” he shouts back, keeping his attention focused on the increasing swarm of spiders.

“Light?!” the Tenno shouts back, confused. Following up while shooting to help him with the spiders, “How does light do anything for your weapon? In fact, how is that even possible?”

“Are you not able to harness light in your world? Literally all the ARKS does revolves around light! I’m using photons right now to do everything I’m doing!”

While the Volt is incapable of expression, a sense of utter confusion can be felt from it.

Suddenly, Zhen teleports nearby the Tenno, spooking him a little. “Light as an element is pretty common in my universe, too. Your timeline needs to catch up.” He then teleports away again, passively assuming the role of baiting the turret, which is now switching between plasma and a flamethrower depending on Zhen’s proximity.

The Tenno is at a loss for words for a moment, but thinks fast. “Revan! Do you think you can try using that element on the big Orb?”

“Why am I always the one pulling the weight?!” Revan shouts jokingly, immediately going over to Exploiter to swing a cut at its legs. It’s faint, but distant laughter could be heard after that remark, sounding like it came from Zhen.

“Agh!” the Exploiter reeled, seemingly damaging the shields but not taking them down. “What was that?! What did you just hit me with?!”

“The shields can’t account for an element that doesn’t exist!” the Tenno exclaimed, excited at finding such a loophole. “Revan! Take down her shields!”

“I can do that in one strike, but I need time to execute the attack!” Revan informed, only to immediately have Zhen teleport in front of him and put up a massive frontal ice barrier.

“You have all the time in the world,” Zhen assured, not even looking back at Revan. Revan quietly nodded, then lifted his sword above his head, aimed straight into the air. Becoming infused with brilliant light as Zhen simply stood next to the barrier, cross-armed as always, keeping it sturdy as the Orb tried to melt it with its flamethrower. While visible melting could be seen from where the flames hit, it didn’t seem to lose any of its thickness whatsoever, as if being reformed the instant any mass was lost. Meanwhile, the Tenno understood he needed to take a new role, and began long-range fire on the coolant spiders with his rifle.

The Exploiter kept firing its flamethrower, tried some plasma shots, and physically kicked the barrier with its hind legs, all to no avail. “What is this preposterousness?!?” the Orb shouted in frustration. “Fire degrades ice! Cracks it and breaks it apart! Why is this not budging?!?”

Zhen simply smiled to himself, amused at the Orb’s frustration blinding it from just walking to the side of the barrier to attack where there’s no cover.

“One more charge…!” Revan announces, the blade supercharged with violent light energy. With one last great eruption of light, the strike was ready and Revan reeled the blade back for a downwards strike. Zhen heard the movement and broke the barrier, shards flying at Exploiter to disorient it. He then teleported away just before the blade of light swung down with a mighty impact.

The blade seemed to cut through the Orb, but made no physical laceration on her body. The shield, however, vanished and left remnant sparks streaking across her body as she reeled back from the strike.

“How is this _**possible**_?!? My shield was supposed to guard against all possible impacts!!!” the Exploiter desperately tried to reason with herself. Without even getting a few seconds to process what happened, Zhen teleported in the air in front of her and punched her with such vicious ice-infused force that she was sent flying into the mountainside behind her, further disorienting her.

“Zhen, wait!” the Tenno shouted. “Exploiter needs to be overheated now! The point of her smaller spiders is to cool her down, and you’re going to do the job for them!”

Zhen landed on the ground and looked at the Tenno, bothered. He then teleported nearby and resumed his usual stance, waiting for his opportunity.

“So how do you suppose we go about doing that?” Revan asked somewhat rhetorically.

“You saw all those canisters the smaller spiders were dropping? We need to fill them with lava made from fractures when Exploiter channels thermal energy into the ground, then throw them onto her body. We all need to do this to make sure the heat rises faster, and once we do, we rip out her inner vents one-by-one to attack her exposed core.”

“Well remembered, Tenno, but…” Exploiter taunts as she regains her footing, jutting out her outer vents and icing them over completely. “… you forgot one step, and you don’t possess the convenience of the Deck 12 to help you!”

“Tch…!” the Tenno scoffed to himself. Meanwhile, Zhen casually let out a chuckle, then teleported onto one of the iced vents.

“What?! What are you--” Before the Exploiter Orb could finish, Zhen placed his hand on the ice and broke it into mist it with complete ease, then punched the vent with an ice gauntlet hard enough to completely shatter it apart. He then did this systematically one-by-one as Exploiter kept reeling from the damage, until all four of the vents were no longer an issue.

Zhen then teleported back as if nothing even happened. “Last time I saw ice that weak and brittle was from a snow cone stand. Pathetic.”

“You **WORMS!!!** ” Exploiter screamed with rage. “I WON’T LET YOU TAKE ME AWAY FROM MY CHILDREN AGAIN!!!!!”

“Think you touched a nerve there, kiddo,” Revan snarked at Zhen.

“Four out of ten,” Zhen replied, catching the hidden pun immediately.

“Heh, tough crowd,” Revan exhaled, lightly shrugging.

“Now we just need to wait for the Exploiter to heat up now that she lost her cooling vents, which might take a while since--” the Tenno attempted to say, only for Zhen to teleport near Exploiter yet again and summon flames in the shape of a shield, chucking it at the Orb and teleporting back, again, like nothing happened.

“… didn’t you say you were an ice mage?” Revan asked, bewildered.

“Don’t ask,” Zhen requested, sighing a little when saying it.

“Children…!” Exploiter begins to chant. “Mother requests--”

“Shut up,” the Tenno suddenly ordered. There was exasperation in his voice, as if he’s heard the line thousands of times before.

“Now you’re learning~,” Zhen playfully replies, seemingly taking the credit for (not really) teaching him something.

“Zhen,” the Tenno begins to command, “Revan and I will cover two sides and take out any coolant spiders. Can I trust your teleportation powers to quickly heat the canisters and throw them at the Orb?”

“Hmph,” he confidently laughs to himself, teleporting without a word to one of the canisters left to collect snow, and waits for the fractures.

“We’re not keeping the heat on?” Revan asks, referring to himself and the Tenno.

“Without her cooling vents and with Zhen kickstarting the process, she’ll start to burn up on her own. As long as we prevent any coolant spiders from firing coolant at her, she’ll eventually collapse from the flames and give one of us an opportunity to rip out one of her vents,” the Tenno reassures.

“And we aren’t just striking the body because…?”

“Her carapace has armor immune to all forms of attack. We have to hit her insides.”

“Right, then. North of her is a bit more flat, so that’s best for your ranged weaponry. I’ll take the South since the terrain is more uneven.”

“They’ll be coming in from the East and West, too,” the Tenno informs, mildly discouraged.

“Of course they will…” Revan sighs, bothered but not deterred.

With that, Revan and the Tenno swiftly dart around Exploiter, gunning and/or slashing down any coolant spiders coming their way. Exploiter attempts to fire at them with plasma and flames, but as always, can’t get a bead on any of them. Occasionally she fires at a patiently waiting, inactive Zhen, but he dodges everything with barely a care. Heat waves begin to emanate from Exploiter, but on Revan’s side, a coolant spider managed to slip his view and rears itself to fire.

“Agh, dammit!” Revan curses his lack of observation. The coolant spider fires its payload, only to suddenly have it freeze midair and fall to the snowy bed below. Revan looks over to Zhen, who’s smiling and shaking his head at him.

“I’ll cover up for any mistakes,” he says, tauntingly.

Cross with both himself and a bit at Zhen, Revan starts fighting more ferociously, making sure not to slip up again.

“DIE!” Exploiter commands, putting her lower body to the ground and pumping excess heat into Venus’ soil, causing multiple fractures to shatter through the cold. This was Zhen’s opportunity, who immediately began teleporting to fractures, heating the canisters up, then tossing them at the Orb in a matter of seconds, one after the other.

“Geez, that’s fast…!” the Tenno remarks, slightly jealous that he’s never been that efficient.

The heat quickly gets the better of the Orb and becomes engulfed in flames, stumbling onto the ground. “You… will… not…” she attempts to say, extremely disoriented.

“Now!” With one fluid motion, the Tenno’s Volt runs up to Exploiter, plants itself on its carapace, digs his hands into one of the vents, and violently rips it out with a full-body, hefty tug. Flames erupt from the hole where the vent was left as the Tenno lands back down, turns around, and pumps a series of rifle bullets rhythmically into the source of the flames until it dies out completely.

“I see…” Revan says quietly to himself, ready to take his turn the next time.

“YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME, WORMS!!! **YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME!!!!!** ” The Exploiter desperately shouts, blindly firing at any of the three she sees. Revan was weirdly reminded of his time on Earth from that line, for some reason. Something about robots on a television…

The second verse was the same as the first, only with a more agitated Exploiter to deal with. The coolant spiders were all brought down before getting close, Exploiter pumped more heat than before into the ground only to have Zhen throw it all right back, and she collapsed to the ground in flames, struggling to say something comprehensive.

“Again!” the Tenno shouts, making his way to the other vent, only to see Revan already there. Following what he saw Volt do, he planted himself on the Orb and dug his hands into the vent, only to delay for a moment. A metallic _*clank*_ cut through the sound, caused by jacks installed in the CAST’s feet to dig itself into Exploiter’s carapace. He then ripped out the vent with one smooth, fervent motion, unhinged the jacks, and landed back down.

“How did you do that so effortlessly?” the Tenno asks as he runs up to Revan, beginning to pump bullets into the exposed area again.

“Being made of completely mechanical parts has its quirks~,” Revan replied playfully, hiding an ever-so-slight degree of melancholy in the remark.

The second vent opening was destroyed, and Exploiter only had the one left in its front side.

“No! NO!! I will not give in to the tumult of the world again, in the same way as I suffered last time!!!!” cried out Exploiter in hopeless rage.

Zhen suddenly teleported to where Volt and Revan were.

“Let me have the last one,” he quietly requests. Both of them nod their head at him, and the strategy to take Exploiter down resumed one last time.

Though it took longer, Exploiter had to purge the heat yet again, but after being hit with a few canisters, a massive, untamed flame wall spawned and pushed all three of them out of range of Exploiter. The flames prevented any entry through them, and firing at them had no effect.

“HA HA HA HA HA!!!” Exploiter laughed in a desperate veil of confidence. “Unlike last time, every single one of you are trapped behind these flames! Even if the heat overtakes me, you will not be able to enter!! MY CHILDREN WILL KEEP THEIR MOTHER, AND SOLARIS UNITED WILL _**DIE!!!**_ ”

Zhen responded to the situation by nonchalantly teleporting inside and outside the ring of fire, chucking heated canisters at her like usual, bored and unimpressed. Exploiter collapsed for the final time.

The ring of fire dispersed, but Exploiter was enveloped in the most flames she ever suffered. “How… why… YOU-…”

Zhen grabbed the horn of the frontal vent, gave it a good tug, and had it suddenly jettisoned out into the sky from an explosion of ice from the inside of the Orb. He then let the ice melt from the explosion of flames, teleporting back to dodge the backdraft.

Zhen walked slowly towards Exploiter, arms spread out their sides and head tilted up, as the Orb struggled to get back up in vain.

“Mother this. Children that. All this talk about family and the good of your offspring, when you’re just a soulless creature of death and destruction, sent out by your own ‘parents’ to do their bidding and become scrap afterwards, easily replaceable.” He begins to close the distance between him and the Orb.

“I pity you.”

“I am… a mother… my beloved children… will--”

Completely ignoring her monologue, Zhen summons a great ice blade from his hand and stabs into the flaming vent, followed up by an array of ice spears stabbing at once, cutting her off. Exploiter is technically still alive, but can’t speak. Ice gradually creeps in and around the stab wounds.

“Let me make one thing clear to you,” Zhen threatened with terrifyingly quiet malice. “I could’ve killed you at any time after those shields were broken. Perhaps even when they were still up. But I didn’t. I wanted you to learn a lesson. That lesson is this.”

He closes his eyes and pauses for a moment.

“You’re no mother. You’re trash.”

“…!” Exploiter makes some desperate whimper in response, but can’t get a word out.

“Your children are programmed to serve you. They are built to bend to your every need and whim. They are programmed to die for you.”

He pauses again. The ice begins to consume the Orb.

“And even if they did have a choice… sending your children out to be killed and to only obey your bidding isn’t being a mother. There is no _love_ like your demented mind seems to believe. There is only slavery. Death slaves desperate for the ‘love’ of their mother.”

Exploiter whimpers one last time as the ice is halfway swallowing her up.

“You’re a wretch. By design, and by choice. Sleep peacefully in the cold embrace of death as your body returns to water.”

“Zhen, WAIT!” the Tenno abruptly cuts in. “She has an explosive reactor in her core! It might be more reactive and powerful than the last time I fought her! If you kill her, there’s no guarantee we can esca--”

Zhen shoves the sword and spears deeper into the opening as her whole body is swallowed in ice, followed by a steady three-stage eruption of wild, serrated ice spikes protruding from the Orb’s body, reaching a mass that matches the nearby mountains until it explodes and disperses into a mist of snowflakes, calm and carried by the wind.

“… oh.” The Tenno was at a loss for words. Zhen solemnly walked up to the two, who have been watching from afar.

“Kid…” Revan began with a quiet mix of anger and fear. “… did you really need to torture your enemy like that?”

Zhen looked into the distance, resting on those words, as if he’s heard it before. Eventually, he met eye contact with Revan.

“I’ve seen enough cruelty to know that cruelty is the only thing evil understands.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Zhen turned his body to face him fully.

“I have no sympathy left. What remains is for them to vanish and make room for successors that actually _give a fuck_.”

There’s bitterness in Revan’s demeanor, but he concedes with a sigh. The Tenno has no fruitful words to contribute.

* * *

The three settled in just inside the cave where everything was supposed to start, but fate decided otherwise. The Tenno left his Volt still near the entrance, phasing into corporeal view and pulled apart his hood to reveal his face. Much like Zhen, the boy was pale in complexion, but leaning a bit on the redder side of pale. He looked youthful and somewhat effeminate, but had noticeably distinguishing features, such as vibrant blue/indigo pupils and a black scar streaking diagonally across one side of his face. His hair was a formal short cut with sided bangs, black melding into soft indigo highlights at the tips. Though resembling a young teenage boy, he gave off an otherworldly, alien aura.

The three had an extensively long conversation about their worlds and various things about themselves, sitting and leaning in the cave’s rock formations near illuminated flora. Due to the length of the conversation, here are some notable excerpts:

**\---**

“So you both are essentially children of war?” Revan asked the two boys, to which they both silently nodded, Zhen doing so more hesitantly. Revan shook his head, shutters in his eyes closing to help simulate the distress he feels.

“ _-sigh-..._ You know… in the world I’m in, there’s a lot of kids around your ages working for ARKS. I’ve fought alongside them, fought against them… even saved and took care of one.”

“What this organization, ARKS’, excuse?” Zhen asked. “Judging from the Space Kid over here, both of us were dragged into combat without much of a choice.”

“The threat posed against us in our universe is so omnipresent that we have to take anyone with a strong photon aptitude in. That, sadly, includes kids.”

Revan winced his eyes for a moment.

“I saw two of them mentally break from all the stress. One was a little girl so powerful that she was appointed as one of the six most powerful ARKS members, but during a critical battle, she discovered that she was merely a clone of a line of fakes, and broke down in tears in the middle of the fight. Thankfully she was able to stay safe and recover, but it hurt to see all that happen. The other was a boy who had his best friend killed in an unexpected invasion of those Falspawn I told you about. A girl who was his emotional bedrock. He essentially lost his sanity and went on a Falspawn killing spree for revenge, then got abducted by the founder of ARKS: A madman obsessed with achieving his goals at any cost. He played the boy like a puppet, manipulating his broken state.”

There was rage shaking in Revan’s fist.

“Through a series of events that would take too long to explain, I got the girl back, but I had to fight the boy before she was able to see him. When he saw her, reality broke apart in front of him, he was a mess of sorrow and rage, and… - _sigh-_. He also recovered just fine, but he bears the marks of his past on him now.”

Both of the boys quietly reflected on his words for a moment.

“And what of the one you saved and took care of?” Zhen asked.

“Mmn…” Revan seemed to be preparing himself for a long speech. “Well…”

**\---**

“What’s your name, anyway?” Revan asked the Tenno. Zhen seemed interested as well.

“My name?… I don’t have a name. I’m just a Tenno.”

“What do you mean you don’t have a name?” Revan asked, baffled. “Everybody has a name. Even CASTs built entirely from robotic parts have names. Why wouldn’t you?”

“I… I don’t know,” the Tenno meekly responded, as if feeling lost. “I am a Tenno. Part of a collective group of beings like me called Tenno, taken care of… _used to be_ taken care of by a woman named the Lotus. We were never referred to anything other than Tenno.”

“You’ll never find a sense of identity living like that,” Zhen interjected in an assertive tone. “I don’t know who this ‘Lotus’ you refer to is, but she doesn’t sound much better than what we just fought outside, sending out nameless children to wars.”

“She--! … ugh…” The Tenno wanted to say something in her defense, but couldn’t really deny his words in any capacity.

“Maybe take the time to think up a name for yourself, when you happen to find said time,” Revan requested. “You’re clearly capable of extraordinary things, and you seem to personalize these ‘warframes’ to your tastes, down to very fine detail.”

The Tenno sighed to himself, then looked to Revan with a weak smile. “I’m clearly not original, judging from your existence.”

“Haha! Who knows, kid, maybe some unknown force influencing us fonds this particular look.”

**\---**

“So these warframes… they’re not robotic?” Revan asked, the three of them hovering around the Volt, who is as still as a statue.

“No,” the Tenno replied. “They’re… they were all people once. Hear me out…” The boy took a breath.

“Imagine a massive organization of people that spans a solar system creates a virus meant to enhance their kind into super soldiers. The warframe you see here is one of the, in the broader scope of things, few successful attempts. The rest are all mutated, mindless flesh that infects everything it crosses paths with unless it is killed directly.”

“So… there’s a person in there?” Revan asks, concerned.

“There’s flesh in there. Broken pieces of a mind. Remnants.”

“They can’t act of their own will?”

“… I help them do that.”

“That means you both control them and… heal them?”

“You could put it that way. Honestly, I’ve used this particular warframe for years now, and I still don’t really understand the full story.”

**\---**

“You’ve been to Earth before?!” the Tenno asked Revan, genuinely shocked. “How has no one ever detected your presence?!”

“Uh, I don’t know. With all the people that live there, I’m sure I got lost in the crowd.”

“People that… what? No one has lived there for countless eras. The Grineer make base there, but it’s all animals and overgrown plants otherwise.”

“Huh?” Revan was stumped. “There aren’t lavishly built cities there, full of humans living tumultuous, yet harmless lives? Playing video games and dining out and such?”

“Wh-…” The Tenno was at a loss for words. “The Orokin? No, are you referring to the age even before that? There’s barely any record of that ever existing.”

The Tenno and Revan look at each other in pure confusion and awe of what’s being said to each other. Neither really knew how to continue the conversation.

**\---**

“…”

Revan and the Tenno stare at Zhen, who just finished somewhat detailed, mostly anecdotal recounting of his journey. A look of genuine concern is on both of their faces.

“Kid… you’ve been through way too much,” Revan comments, sorrowful over Zhen’s situation. Zhen dismissively shrugged.

“They’re the cards I’ve been dealt. Whatever. Plus, like I mentioned a few times now, I’m not free from doing horrible things myself.

“Are you going to be okay?” the Tenno asked, voice somewhat shaky.

“I’m still standing here, aren’t I?” Zhen sharply responded. Revan began to approach him for a hug, but Zhen quickly backed off.

“Don’t touch me. You’re nowhere near trusted enough to even think about doing that.”

“I just want to show you some suppo--”

“I have support already. A group of people back home that have stuck by me through the best and worst of times. Without them, I…”

Zhen stops and takes a moment to look at the two, still with looks of concern.

“Enough. You’re making me uneasy.”

* * *

Some time had passed. When thoughts over whether these two outworlders would even have an opportunity to go back started to creep into their minds, a transmission cut through the silence of the Tenno’s ears. It was Ordis.

“OPERATOR!!! Are you okay?!? I have been trying to reach you for 16723 sec-- several hours now!”

Revan seemed to be getting a transmission through his ear as well. Alongside that, a burst of pressure was felt from outside the cave, which caught Zhen’s attention. He went out to check what it was.

“Ordis! Yeah, I’m doing okay. I took care of Exploiter just fine, and I’ve just been waiting for me to get a signal again.”

“In a cave, Operator? You didn’t go back to Solaris? Also, I’m detecting 3-- no, 4 life signatures nearby you, which I can’t seem to analyze. Who are they? Do I need to-- _show them the meaning of a scorched earth_ – help you?”

“No, Ordis, they’re fine. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back. Could you send the orbiter my way?”

“Uh, of course, Operator. I brought it over to empty space to keep it safe until I heard from you again. T-minus 5 minutes.”

“Thanks, Ordis.” The Tenno cuts communication with Ordis for now, going over to Revan and telling him “I got a call telling me there’s a fourth person nearby. Do you know what that’s about?”

“No, I don’t. Xia- uh, an ARKS radio operative told me a ship was being sent my way soon. There was a sense of pressure I felt that Zhen investigated. Might have something to do with that?”

“I felt that, too. Yeah, let’s go.” The Tenno put his hood back up and phased back into the Volt, which regained autonomy.

They walked out to find Zhen talking to an older man in oriental robes, a set that did a poor job of covering his upper torso. His hair was long and brown with a white streak in it, his body was scarred, and he carries a katana that seems to be aged with tremendous experience.

“A-ha, sorry it took sho long to find you, Jen! Tried everythink I could to find yew only to end up with noshing! I really wash worried ‘bout ya…” the man said, clearly drunk and somewhat disoriented, holding a bottle of saké. Zhen snatched the bottle out of his hands, furious.

“Give me a reason to not break this right now, Siran.”

“Whaa? _*hic*_ I felt sho guilty that I might have losht ya forever, kiddo, so I needed to drown my shorrowsh. All of your friendsh were worried shick and chewed me out sho bad…”

Zhen closed his eyes to subside his anger, regained himself, then slapped the bottle back into Siran’s hand.

“Tell them I’ll be back soon, and to not worry so much. I really don’t want Firre crying over me again.”

He vacantly nodded, then looked over to see the Tenno and Revan approaching. To him, though, they may as well be swimmy, shadowy blurs.

“Oh Carlosho, I’m sheein’ things now. I’mma get outta heer before I really shtart hallushinatin’.”

“Yes, go. Shoo.” Zhen made shooing motions at Siran until he walked through the dimensional portal, of which the pressure originated when it suddenly spawned into existence. Alas, I say “walked,” but it’d be more apt to say he “stumbled” into the portal.

“Three things,” Revan said as he approached Zhen. “Who was that, what is that, and what?”

“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, and oh, doesn’t matter,” Zhen snarked. He could tell Revan was genuinely curious, but wouldn’t give him a bite of info. He was a bit peeved.

“At this point, I’m beyond asking questions,” said the Tenno. “There’s… a lot to process today. I need to go meditate.”

“Fair point,” said Revan. “I need to go to my quarters and reflect on things for a bit.”

“Given how my friends are, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep at the inn for a while,” followed up Zhen. “I’m gonna be dealing with a lot of emotions soon.”

Both the Tenno and Revan had a quiet laugh and all smiled at each other, feeling it even when it couldn’t be seen.

“Well, this was an enjoyable experience!” Revan remarked, feeling satisfied. “I feel a little sad having to leave this universe now. Pretty stark contrast to the confusion and frustration I felt at first.”

“Indeed,” agreed Zhen. “Thought I’d be stuck here bored out of my mind waiting on Siran, but you two have been quite the company~.”

“Who knows. If we were all able to find each other once, maybe we can find a way to do it again sometime,” Revan proposed to the both of them.

“I’d like that,” replied the Tenno, a smile somehow emanating from the Volt.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Revan’s tone suddenly changed as he pointed directly at the Tenno. “Because you owe me a rematch. We didn’t get to finish that fight.”

“Heh. You wouldn’t win,” chided the Tenno.

Revan then motioned his point towards Zhen.

“You not only wouldn’t win, you would die. I would have to hold back tremendously for you to even have a hope.”

“Hasn’t stopped me before,” confidently replied Revan, without a hint of reservation.

“Seconded,” backed the Tenno.

Zhen simply shook his head with a smirk, letting them have their pride.

“Anyway, it’s my time to go. Zhen, Tenno, it’s been a pleasure. And…”

Both of them look at Revan, curious.

“… take care of yourselves. Both of you are far too young to be shouldering these responsibilities.”

“You, too,” replied Zhen, in the calmest and most genuine tone the two have heard yet. The Tenno simply nodded, firmly.

A flash of ringed light spirited Revan away, and Zhen stepped through the portal, which gradually shrunk and vanished once its purpose was done. Meanwhile, the Tenno’s orbiter positioned itself vertically on a mountain’s landing nearby, for ease of access into the transporter. The Tenno turned his head away from that for a moment and directed it towards the sky, taking a moment to soak in the sounds of the wind and snow.

With a deep breath, he rested his arm on his blade, and slowly walked over to the orbiter. The snow felt especially soft on the warframe’s casing on the trip back.

_Orb Vallis, Venus, 21:48_

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wanted to make this after I developed a fic series for each of the characters featured in this story, preferably far into each's timelines, but considering how few and far between I have the time/motivation to write fanfiction, I figured I may as well skip ahead and exercise this crack crossover idea. By far the longest work I've written in one entry, and applying all the newfound writing knowledge I have from college. Hoping to put a few more one shot ideas like this on paper before I continue a series again, to help get me back in the writing groove.
> 
> May do a follow-up to this, if people like it enough.


End file.
